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Will 200t be enough shooting a live on stage performance?


Danny Boyle

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I've been asked to shoot a last minute live performance on 16mm as a favor to a friend. I haven't agreed to anything yet as I only have access to 200t stock and I'm struggling to get my hands on 500t. Do you think 200t would be acceptable? Or does anyone have experience with shooting it with less then favorable lighting? The venue is extremely well lit and my previous attempts with 500t have worked out well.

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FWIW, I photograph stage actors. My exposure, with relatively bright rehearsal lighting, is 1/40 sec, f/4 (IIRC), ISO 800. This translates to f/2 and ISO 200, which seems pretty reasonable to me. I think you're going to want data from more people on this one.

I also checked the photos I took a few years ago at a gig. It was a smallish space. Exposure was the same but at ISO 1600, although I could have shot at 800 perhaps for some of the shots.

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I think the big problem isn't just the stock type, but also the lens. Concerts are mostly shot with zooms and even a super nice T2.4 zoom will probably be too slow for  200T sadly. If ya had something that was T1.3 then maybe, but even that is a stretch. I've shot lots of dark settings with concerts and such on film and 500 usually BARELY squeaks by with normal stage lighting. The problem isn't your highlights, the problem is your blacks. You'll be struggling to bring them up to see anything in the shadows, even with a T1.3 lens. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi guys thought I'd post an update on this just if anyone in the future is looking for something to reference off. Ended up having to use 200T vision 2 from god knows when as the film I ordered didn't arrive in time. Shot wide open and tried my best to make it look interesting although I had very little space to move. Tyler you're right the shadows are a bit of a nightmare. Turned out alright tho and was a good learning experience.

 

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That looked pretty darned good! Even the best ARRI and Red cameras wouldn't be able to hold detail in the light sources (although the upcoming Alexa 35 might be able to...). BTW what was the shutter angle and stop?

And I just realised this is Vision 2, not 3. Wow man. It still turned out well, nonetheless.

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